Shownotes
Is it worth following Jesus? What would you give up in order to follow Jesus. In this episode, we meet a man who happily gives up everything to keep following Jesus, the good shepherd. This man was born blind, but in the end, he sees better than so many who been able to see their whole life. Join Dave as he explores John 9-10.
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Transcripts
G'day.
Speaker:Welcome along to stories of a faithful God.
Speaker:I'm Dave Whittingham.
Speaker:I want to apologise for the delay in bringing
Speaker:out this episode.
Speaker:For the last week or so I've had a really bad
Speaker:back and it's put things on hold.
Speaker:Thanks to everyone who's been praying for me.
Speaker:Because of that, and with the wise advice of my wife, I've decided to delay the launch of
Speaker:the stories of a faithful God club.
Speaker:I was hoping to announce it in this episode,
Speaker:but instead I'll probably quietly make it available in the next couple of weeks and then
Speaker:tell you about it in the next episode.
Speaker:But I do have something else exciting to
Speaker:announce.
Speaker:It may seem like a long way away, but
Speaker:Christmas is coming.
Speaker:Years ago, when our kids were very young, my
Speaker:wife wrote an advent calendar.
Speaker:Every day on the first 25 days of December,
Speaker:we'd snuggle in as a family and learn more about the goodness and faithfulness of God
Speaker:through Jesus.
Speaker:He kept our hearts and minds focused on Jesus
Speaker:as we looked at the Old Testament promises about Jesus coming the first time, what Jesus
Speaker:did when he arrived, and how he's coming again.
Speaker:After we'd read about that, our kids got to create the artwork that would go along with
Speaker:each day as a reminder of what we'd learned.
Speaker:Now, this advent calendar for families is
Speaker:going to be published by Youthworks Media.
Speaker:We want lots of people to enjoy learning from
Speaker:the Bible from beginning to end.
Speaker:Itll be a digital resource when it comes out,
Speaker:so youll be able to buy it and download it from pretty much anywhere on the planet.
Speaker:The details are still being finalised, but I want to let you know now so you can start
Speaker:getting excited now on with the show.
Speaker:If everything else in your life was stripped
Speaker:away, would it still be worth clinging to Jesus?
Speaker:If you lost everything else, would Jesus still be worth it?
Speaker:Would you still want to trust or believe in him?
Speaker:What if you lost everything because you believe in Jesus because you've stuck with
Speaker:him, would that still be worth it? If someone said you can have friends, family,
Speaker:a community, respect, acceptance, or you can have Jesus, what would you choose?
Speaker:What would be the best choice? Naturally we want to say, cant I have both?
Speaker:And sometimes thats possible.
Speaker:Sometimes it isnt though, and im not just
Speaker:talking about those countries where its illegal to be christian.
Speaker:I assume most of the people listening arent in those countries.
Speaker:Im talking about the countries where youre listening right now.
Speaker:The cost of following Jesus can be massive.
Speaker:So is it worth it?
Speaker:In our journey through John's gospel.
Speaker:We're starting to see more and more that it
Speaker:isn't just dangerous to be Jesus.
Speaker:It's dangerous to follow Jesus and believe in
Speaker:him.
Speaker:What we're going to see today is someone stand
Speaker:up and say, that's totally worth it.
Speaker:And so I present to you our next episode of
Speaker:stories of a faithful goddess.
Speaker:At the end of our last episode, people had
Speaker:picked up stones to kill Jesus.
Speaker:He'd emphatically declared that he is the one
Speaker:true God, the God who the Jews were claiming to worship.
Speaker:He said before Abraham was, I am claiming the name that God used of himself in Exodus.
Speaker:He hadn't said it out of the blue.
Speaker:He'd based it on all the evidence proving his
Speaker:claim, his works, the testimony of John the Baptist, the testimony of God in the Old
Speaker:Testament.
Speaker:But the Jews were blind to all that.
Speaker:Even though he came as the true light in the world, they remained in darkness.
Speaker:Their spiritual sight was dead.
Speaker:Now, as Jesus is walking along, he comes
Speaker:across a blind man, a man who's physically blind.
Speaker:In fact, he was born blind.
Speaker:He's never seen a thing.
Speaker:Not a tree waving in the wind, not the changing hues of a sunset, not the smiling
Speaker:face of his own mother.
Speaker:He's never even seen the back of his own hand.
Speaker:Not a glimmer of light has penetrated his dead eyes.
Speaker:Jesus disciples ask a question about this man that for many of us seems shocking.
Speaker:In chapter nine, verse two, they ask, rabbi, who sinned I this man or his parents, that he
Speaker:was born blind.
Speaker:Now, sometimes God does send sickness on
Speaker:people as a specific punishment for a specific sin.
Speaker:Romans chapter one talks about that.
Speaker:But the Bible is also really clear that that's
Speaker:not how it always works.
Speaker:It isn't a mechanical thing where you get sick
Speaker:in equal proportion to your sin.
Speaker:That's the mistake Job's friends make in the
Speaker:Old Testament.
Speaker:Jobs suffering, they assume, is because of his
Speaker:sin.
Speaker:In that case, in fact, it's the exact
Speaker:opposite.
Speaker:He's been chosen to suffer precisely because
Speaker:of his love and obedience towards God.
Speaker:Jesus disciples are making the same sort of
Speaker:mistake as Job's friends.
Speaker:They're assuming the man's blindness is a
Speaker:punishment.
Speaker:They're saying either it's a punishment for
Speaker:his sin, or his parents have sinned and been punished by being given a blind child.
Speaker:Can you see how insidious that belief is? If you believe people get sick because of
Speaker:their sin, what do you think about yourself if you're not sick, you're tempted to think, I
Speaker:must be better than them.
Speaker:It turns out this man's sickness has nothing
Speaker:to do with his or his parents sin.
Speaker:In fact, the reason Jesus gives for his
Speaker:blindness is in some ways even more shocking.
Speaker:It may even challenge your idea of gods
Speaker:goodness, but stick with it because it actually is so good and so important and were
Speaker:going to see it even more dramatically.
Speaker:In the next episode, Jesus tells his disciples
Speaker:why this mans been blind from birth.
Speaker:In verse three, he says, neither this man nor
Speaker:his parents sinned.
Speaker:This came about so that God's works might be
Speaker:displayed in him.
Speaker:Did you hear that?
Speaker:Do you feel the weight of it? God has ordained that this man would be blind
Speaker:from birth so that people can see God's works, so that through him people would see the power
Speaker:and greatness of goddess.
Speaker:Some people will hear that and think how
Speaker:terrible.
Speaker:God can't be good if he's going to allow that.
Speaker:But that's the wrong way to look at it.
Speaker:This doesn't say that God's not good.
Speaker:Instead, it says that our situation is so bad, we're in such a terrible situation that in
Speaker:order to help us, God set up this situation to help us see what we need to see to cure us of
Speaker:our spiritual blindness.
Speaker:The size of the cure shows the size of the
Speaker:sickness.
Speaker:All throughout John's gospel, Jesus has been
Speaker:doing the works his father gave him to do.
Speaker:Why?
Speaker:So that we know who Jesus is.
Speaker:Why do we need that?
Speaker:So that we can believe in him.
Speaker:And why is that so important?
Speaker:So that we can be saved from sin and death and receive eternal life.
Speaker:We need to see what Jesus is going to do for this man, so that we can trust Jesus and have
Speaker:life through him.
Speaker:Jesus only has a limited time to show us.
Speaker:The storm clouds leading up to his death are gathering.
Speaker:He says to his disciples, we must do the works of him who sent us.
Speaker:While it is day, night is coming, when no one can work.
Speaker:As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
Speaker:And so Jesus prepares to share his light, both physically to the man who has never seen light
Speaker:and spiritually.
Speaker:For those living in the darkness of sin, what
Speaker:Jesus does is very strange.
Speaker:There's very few miracles quite like it.
Speaker:Usually Jesus just speaks or touches someone and they're healed.
Speaker:This one's very different and a bit more uncomfortable.
Speaker:In verse six, John tells us, after he said these things, he spat on the ground, made some
Speaker:mud from the saliva, and spread the mud on his eyes.
Speaker:Go. He told him, wash in the pool of siloam, which means scent.
Speaker:So he left, washed, and came back, seeing totally gross, right?
Speaker:People have all sorts of theories about what Jesus is doing here, but at a really practical
Speaker:level, it separates the man from Jesus.
Speaker:He has to go away from Jesus to the pool of
Speaker:Siloam before he's healed.
Speaker:You may remember the man back in chapter five
Speaker:who'd been sick for 38 years, perhaps not his whole life, but for a very long time.
Speaker:Just like this man who was born blind.
Speaker:He was also healed by Jesus.
Speaker:He was also near a pool.
Speaker:He also became separated from Jesus.
Speaker:And in the separation, he was left to decide how he was going to respond to this man who'd
Speaker:transformed his life.
Speaker:Unfortunately, he'd responded by saying, not
Speaker:going to get in trouble for Jesus.
Speaker:He didn't want to be caught up in the whole
Speaker:Sabbath breaking scandal.
Speaker:And so, despite what jesus had done for him,
Speaker:he ran to the jewish leaders and told them it was Jesus who broke the law.
Speaker:It could have been a moment of glorious discipleship, a moment of wonderful
Speaker:thankfulness to his saviour.
Speaker:But it wasn't to be.
Speaker:Instead, he showed the backbone of a jellyfish.
Speaker:Now we have a new man who has been sick for a very long time, healed by Jesus, separated
Speaker:from Jesus.
Speaker:How's he going to respond when people start
Speaker:asking him questions? The first response of his neighbours and those
Speaker:who have seen him as a beggar is confusion.
Speaker:You know when you see someone out of context
Speaker:and you're like, is it them? I'm not really sure.
Speaker:And so they're going back and forward having this debate.
Speaker:I'm sure it's him.
Speaker:No, it can't be.
Speaker:It must be him.
Speaker:No, it just looks like him.
Speaker:It's totally understandable.
Speaker:The last time they saw him, he was blind.
Speaker:The ridiculous thing about it, though, is that he's jumping up and down in the middle of the
Speaker:debate and saying, it's me, it's me.
Speaker:Finally, they come to the radical conclusion
Speaker:that they should actually ask him about it and say, in verse ten, then, how are your eyes
Speaker:opened? He answered, the man called Jesus made mud,
Speaker:spread it on my eyes and told me, go to Siloam and wash.
Speaker:So when I went and washed, I received my sight.
Speaker:Where is he? They asked.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:He said, clearly, this needs to go higher up
Speaker:the chain.
Speaker:They take the man off to the Pharisees.
Speaker:And this is where John lets us in on one final detail, the parallels with the healing in
Speaker:chapter five.
Speaker:He says in verse 14, the day that Jesus made
Speaker:the mud and opened his eyes was a sabbath.
Speaker:Suddenly the stakes have become much higher.
Speaker:When the man was healed on the Sabbath.
Speaker:In chapter five, it led to a chain of events
Speaker:that made the Pharisees want to kill Jesus.
Speaker:Since that time, their desire to kill him has
Speaker:only increased.
Speaker:Suddenly, this man is going to have to make a
Speaker:choice.
Speaker:Stand with the Pharisees or stand with Jesus.
Speaker:The Pharisees ask him about what happened and he gives them the straightforward answer.
Speaker:He put mud on my eyes.
Speaker:I washed and I can see, as weve seen a couple
Speaker:of times.
Speaker:This causes a debate among the Pharisees.
Speaker:They aren't all as quick to condemn Jesus as we might think.
Speaker:Verse 16 says.
Speaker:Some of the Pharisees said, this man is not
Speaker:from God because he doesn't keep the Sabbath.
Speaker:But others were saying, how can a sinful man
Speaker:perform such signs? And there was a division among them.
Speaker:This could be a sign that some are really honest in looking at the evidence, people like
Speaker:Nicodemus, who really want to ask the important questions.
Speaker:It could also be a sign of frustration.
Speaker:They really want to condemn Jesus.
Speaker:But it's hard to condemn a guy for being against God when he's so obviously working
Speaker:with God.
Speaker:Time will tell what's going on in their
Speaker:hearts.
Speaker:We won't have long to wait.
Speaker:Strangely, these highly educated religious leaders, who can't resolve the situation
Speaker:themselves, turn to someone rather unexpected for an answer.
Speaker:They turn to the man who's been healed.
Speaker:They ask him what he says about Jesus and he
Speaker:at least doesn't mess around.
Speaker:He thinks it's all pretty straightforward.
Speaker:It doesn't need hours of theological debate.
Speaker:He just says about Jesus, he's a prophet.
Speaker:That's not really the answer they're after.
Speaker:So they fix on an explanation that solves all
Speaker:their problems.
Speaker:And that's to say, ah, this is a hoax.
Speaker:This guy was never blind.
Speaker:Jesus hasn't healed him that way.
Speaker:They can kill Jesus for blasphemy and deny the uncomfortable evidence that shows that they're
Speaker:wrong.
Speaker:So they call in this guy's parents.
Speaker:Now, just think about the lives of this couple.
Speaker:Not only is it hard to have a child born blind, remember, this is before braille,
Speaker:before white canes and seeing eye dogs, before laser surgery and cataract removal, as well as
Speaker:all that, this husband and wife have had to live their lives surrounded by the stares of
Speaker:their neighbours.
Speaker:People who think, did they do something evil?
Speaker:Is that why their son was born blind? And now they've been summoned in front of the
Speaker:Pharisees, the self styled judges of all that's good and evil.
Speaker:They must be terrified.
Speaker:In verse 19.
Speaker:The Pharisees ask, is this your son? The one you say was born blind?
Speaker:How does he now see? We know this is our son and that he was born
Speaker:blind.
Speaker:His parents answered, but we don't know how he
Speaker:now sees.
Speaker:And we don't know who opened his eyes.
Speaker:Ask him.
Speaker:He's of age.
Speaker:He'll speak for himself.
Speaker:It would be easy to read that as a way for
Speaker:them to honor their adult son.
Speaker:He's a man.
Speaker:Don't treat him like a child by asking us.
Speaker:Actually, though, it isn't a kindness.
Speaker:It's spoken out of fear.
Speaker:It's throwing their son under the bus.
Speaker:When I played rugby, this was called a hospital pass.
Speaker:There's a big guy coming towards me.
Speaker:He's gonna put whoever's holding the ball into
Speaker:hospital.
Speaker:I'll just give the ball to someone else.
Speaker:John explains in verse 22.
Speaker:He says his parents said these things because
Speaker:they were afraid of the Jews.
Speaker:Since the Jews had already agreed that if
Speaker:anyone confessed him Jesus as the messiah, he would be banned from the synagogue.
Speaker:This is why his parents said he's of age.
Speaker:Ask him.
Speaker:This isn't just about their relationship with their son.
Speaker:It's about their relationship with Jesus.
Speaker:They should be super thankful to Jesus.
Speaker:He's healed their son from a lifelong condition.
Speaker:More than that, he's taken away the lifelong shame of their son and of them.
Speaker:But it's too uncomfortable to acknowledge Jesus.
Speaker:It would mean being removed from the heart of their society, the heart of their cultural and
Speaker:religious life, the synagogue.
Speaker:And they're not willing to pay that price.
Speaker:What about their son? What'll he do?
Speaker:He's summoned in front of the Pharisees again.
Speaker:Remember, he hasn't seen anyone ever before
Speaker:today.
Speaker:Now he has to look at these really angry faces
Speaker:of authority.
Speaker:And they are angry this time.
Speaker:They don't give him an opportunity to offer an opinion.
Speaker:They command him what to think.
Speaker:In verse 24, they tell him, give glory to God.
Speaker:We know that this man, Jesus, is a sinner.
Speaker:Now their hearts are revealed.
Speaker:The reason they couldnt reach that conclusion before was because of an uncomfortable fact.
Speaker:Jesus had healed a man in such a way that proved he was working with God.
Speaker:Theyd tried to get around that by denying the miracle.
Speaker:Now that thats failed, they should be willing to face facts and accept that Jesus is from
Speaker:goddess.
Speaker:Instead, they've deliberately chosen to ignore
Speaker:the facts.
Speaker:They've blinded themselves to the facts.
Speaker:And they demand that this man, who's just received his sight for the first time, also
Speaker:blind himself.
Speaker:Thankfully, he's not willing to do that.
Speaker:While he doesn't come straight out and declare faith in Jesus yet, he defiantly reminds them
Speaker:of what's happened.
Speaker:He reminds them of the very thing they've
Speaker:chosen to be blind to.
Speaker:He says, whether or not he's a sinner, I don't
Speaker:know.
Speaker:One thing I do know, I was blind and now I can
Speaker:see.
Speaker:Just as we've seen before in this gospel.
Speaker:When people are blinded by sin, they tend to go around and around in arguments, desperately
Speaker:trying to find a loophole.
Speaker:In verse 26, they ask him, what did he do to
Speaker:you? How did he open your eyes?
Speaker:This is such a ridiculous question because they already know the answer.
Speaker:It's so ridiculous, it deserves a ridiculous response.
Speaker:In fact, the man gives quite a cheeky response.
Speaker:With a twinkle in his eye and a mischievous smile, he says, I already told you and you
Speaker:didn't listen.
Speaker:Why do you want to hear it again?
Speaker:You don't want to become his disciples too, do you?
Speaker:Hes not moving away from Jesus.
Speaker:Hes looked at the facts and hes more and more
Speaker:convinced about Jesus.
Speaker:Hes also looked at the facts about the
Speaker:Pharisees and hes moving further and further away from them.
Speaker:He can see how theyre not making any sense at all.
Speaker:They respond with ridicule and insult.
Speaker:They say, youre that mans disciple, but were
Speaker:Moses disciples.
Speaker:We know that God has spoken to Moses, but this
Speaker:man, we don't know where he's from.
Speaker:They think they've captured the moral high
Speaker:ground.
Speaker:They think they're siding with Moses and God.
Speaker:And with all their theological training, you'd expect them to be there on God's side.
Speaker:And yet this uneducated beggar off the street, who's been blind from birth, can see much
Speaker:clearer than them.
Speaker:In fact, they've just admitted their blindness
Speaker:by saying that they don't know where Jesus has come from.
Speaker:The man who can now see shows just how blind they are.
Speaker:He lays out the evidence in front of them.
Speaker:He becomes their teacher.
Speaker:He says in verse 30, this is an amazing thing.
Speaker:You don't know where he's from.
Speaker:And yet he opened my eyes.
Speaker:We know that God doesn't listen to sinners.
Speaker:But if anyone is God fearing and does his will, he listens to him.
Speaker:Throughout history, no one has ever heard of someone opening the eyes of a person born
Speaker:blind.
Speaker:If this man were not from God, he wouldn't be
Speaker:able to do anything.
Speaker:That's a straightforward, logical, laying out
Speaker:the facts.
Speaker:Jesus has done things that he could only do
Speaker:with God's.
Speaker:Help.
Speaker:Therefore, he must be from God.
Speaker:It isn't rocket science.
Speaker:They just have to look at the evidence.
Speaker:But they can't because they're blind.
Speaker:And again, they show their blindness by their condemnation of this man.
Speaker:They say to him, you were born entirely in sin.
Speaker:Thats different to what Jesus said.
Speaker:Jesus says this man wasnt blind because of
Speaker:anyones sin.
Speaker:Who are you going to believe about that?
Speaker:These blind guides who cant see their hand in front of their face?
Speaker:Or Jesus, the light of the world, whos proven time and time again that hes from God?
Speaker:These Pharisees have no idea, cant see the truth about Jesus.
Speaker:They can't see the truth about God, and they can't see the truth about this man.
Speaker:They yell abuse at him and kick him out.
Speaker:And so, on the day that he's able to enter
Speaker:society fully, for the first time in his life, he's kicked out by the gatekeepers of that
Speaker:society.
Speaker:How does he feel about that?
Speaker:Does he regret it? Has he done the wrong thing?
Speaker:Not at all.
Speaker:His eyes are opened, not just in a physical
Speaker:sense.
Speaker:He's now able to see the truth.
Speaker:And so in verse 35, we see this wonderful interaction between him and Jesus.
Speaker:He shows his absolute confidence and trust in Jesus.
Speaker:Verse 35 says, jesus heard that they'd thrown the man out.
Speaker:And when he found him, he asked, do you believe in the son of Mandev?
Speaker:Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him? He asked.
Speaker:Jesus answered, you have seen him.
Speaker:In fact, he is the one speaking with you.
Speaker:I believe, Lord, he said, and he worshipped him.
Speaker:There are no regrets for this man.
Speaker:He's seen that it's worth losing everything
Speaker:for Jesus.
Speaker:It's so obvious to him that by siding with
Speaker:Jesus, he's siding with God.
Speaker:Jesus then summarizes his ministry as the
Speaker:light of the world.
Speaker:He says in verse 39, I came into this world
Speaker:for judgment in order that those who do not see will see.
Speaker:And those who do see will become blind.
Speaker:The ones who do see are really those who think
Speaker:they see.
Speaker:As they confront Jesus, though, their
Speaker:blindness becomes obvious, like it has for the Pharisees.
Speaker:In fact, there are some Pharisees standing there with Jesus who say, we aren't blind too,
Speaker:are we? They assume they're not blind.
Speaker:They assume they see well, but they're wrong.
Speaker:It's like in Luke, chapter five, verse 31,
Speaker:where Jesus says, it is not those who are healthy who need a doctor, but those who are
Speaker:sick.
Speaker:I have not come to call the righteous, but
Speaker:sinners to repentance.
Speaker:It's not that there are some people who
Speaker:haven't sinned.
Speaker:They just think that they're not sinners.
Speaker:And so they don't seek out help.
Speaker:People who think they're healthy don't go to a
Speaker:doctor, even when they're sick.
Speaker:People who are blind, who think they see, are
Speaker:the same.
Speaker:And so Jesus says to these poor, blind
Speaker:Pharisees.
Speaker:If you were blind, you wouldn't have sin.
Speaker:Meaning the sin of not believing in him.
Speaker:Then he says, but now that you say, we see
Speaker:your sin remains.
Speaker:The interaction with the Pharisees.
Speaker:Raises the question.
Speaker:Of who it's worth listening to and following.
Speaker:Both Jesus and the Pharisees claim to lead you to God.
Speaker:Both reject the teaching of the other.
Speaker:Jesus has been proven to be faithful and true.
Speaker:The Pharisees have been proven to be blind.
Speaker:Jesus describes leadership in terms of
Speaker:shepherds and sheep.
Speaker:In Jesus day, shepherds have small flocks of
Speaker:sheep.
Speaker:About 30 sheep.
Speaker:And they know each one by name.
Speaker:At night, a few different shepherds.
Speaker:Could all bring their flock.
Speaker:To a communal pen for protection.
Speaker:Jesus says there are real shepherds and false shepherds.
Speaker:People who really do help.
Speaker:God's people know God.
Speaker:And people who claim to be helping.
Speaker:They claim to speak the truth.
Speaker:But instead they hurt the sheep.
Speaker:As Jesus describes the true shepherd.
Speaker:The real shepherd, listen to the love and care he has for the sheep.
Speaker:Jesus says in chapter ten, verse one.
Speaker:Truly, I tell you, anyone who doesnt enter the
Speaker:sheep pen by the gate.
Speaker:But climbs in the other way.
Speaker:Is a thief and a robber.
Speaker:The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd
Speaker:of the sheep.
Speaker:The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep
Speaker:hear his voice.
Speaker:He calls his own sheep by name and leads them
Speaker:out.
Speaker:When hes brought all his own outside, he goes
Speaker:ahead of them.
Speaker:The sheep follow him because they know his
Speaker:voice.
Speaker:They will never follow a stranger.
Speaker:Instead, they will run away from him.
Speaker:Because they don't know the voice of
Speaker:strangers.
Speaker:We've just seen this played out in the last
Speaker:chapter.
Speaker:Think about Jesus love and care for the man.
Speaker:He finds him blind and he heals him.
Speaker:He restores his life and gives him hope.
Speaker:When the Pharisees come along.
Speaker:They claim to be following the teachings of
Speaker:Moses.
Speaker:They claim to be leading people to goddess.
Speaker:But they ignore everything God's showing them.
Speaker:And they're not gentle with the sheep.
Speaker:They're harsh and abusive and cruel.
Speaker:And when the man hears them, he knows it's not
Speaker:right.
Speaker:He's like, that's not the voice of my
Speaker:shepherd.
Speaker:As soon as Jesus turns up, though, the one
Speaker:who's got nothing but love for him.
Speaker:He says, ah, that's my shepherd.
Speaker:And he follows Jesus wherever Jesus leads.
Speaker:Jesus asks, do you believe in the son of man?
Speaker:And the man replies, who is he, sir, that I may believe in him.
Speaker:In other words, I'll believe in whoever you tell me to believe in, because you're my
Speaker:faithful shepherd.
Speaker:Sometimes you might find yourself in a church
Speaker:or organization where the leaders claim to be following Jesus, speaking for Jesus.
Speaker:But they're actually saying things opposite to what Jesus says.
Speaker:This can happen in any church, any denomination, any tradition.
Speaker:I would describe myself as an evangelical.
Speaker:I've been a minister in evangelical churches.
Speaker:I'm an anglican minister, which is where evangelicalism first kicked off.
Speaker:And I know that this sort of thing happens all the time in evangelical churches and anglican
Speaker:churches.
Speaker:There are always people who look like
Speaker:shepherds, but who are actually leading the sheep away from the true shepherd, Jesus.
Speaker:If you find yourself in that situation, don't give up on church.
Speaker:Invite your leaders to come back to Jesus.
Speaker:If they don't find a church where the leaders
Speaker:lead you to the true shepherd of the sheep, who lead you to Jesus.
Speaker:The people listening don't really understand what jesus is talking about, so he shifts the
Speaker:metaphor a bit.
Speaker:He describes himself as the gate in the sheep
Speaker:pen.
Speaker:He closes to keep his sheep safe.
Speaker:And when it's safe, he opens to let the sheep out into good pasture.
Speaker:Again, it's the language of loving care, strong tenderness and powerful gentleness.
Speaker:Other people who pretend to care for the sheep, they're just there to kill, not Jesus.
Speaker:In verse seven, Jesus says, truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.
Speaker:All who came before me are thieves and robbers.
Speaker:But the sheep don't listen to them.
Speaker:I am the gate.
Speaker:If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture.
Speaker:A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
Speaker:I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.
Speaker:The Pharisees were not seeking the good of the man who was healed.
Speaker:They were just using him to try and justify their own evil decisions.
Speaker:They were trying to lock him away from the one who gives eternal life.
Speaker:They were trying to kill him.
Speaker:But jesus gave him life.
Speaker:For jesus to give him that life, it's going to cost him his own life.
Speaker:He's going to die on the cross, taking the sin of his people on himself, dying our death so
Speaker:we can live.
Speaker:He describes that in these wonderful words in
Speaker:verse eleven.
Speaker:He says, I am the good shepherd.
Speaker:The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
Speaker:The hired hand, since he is not the shepherd and doesnt own the sheep, leaves them and runs
Speaker:away when he sees a wolf coming.
Speaker:The wolf then snatches and scatters them.
Speaker:This happens because he is a hired hand and doesnt care about the sheep.
Speaker:I am the good shepherd.
Speaker:I know my own, and my own know me.
Speaker:Just as the father knows me and I know the father.
Speaker:I lay down my life for the sheep.
Speaker:How wonderful to be a sheep.
Speaker:With that shepherd.
Speaker:There's nothing he won't do, no place he won't
Speaker:go to save you.
Speaker:The man, born blind gave up everything to
Speaker:follow Jesus as his good shepherd.
Speaker:And it's worth it, because jesus can give him
Speaker:everything.
Speaker:Safety, security, love, leadership, life.
Speaker:Jesus is strong and powerful.
Speaker:A mighty warrior shepherd, and a sacrificial
Speaker:servant shepherd.
Speaker:He's a shepherd who's seeking out his sheep.
Speaker:He's people all around the world, jew and Gentile.
Speaker:He's uniting us into his flock as one people.
Speaker:He says in verse 16, I have other sheep that
Speaker:are not from this sheep pen.
Speaker:I must bring them also, and they will listen
Speaker:to my voice.
Speaker:Then there will be one flock, one shepherd.
Speaker:Jesus loves his flock, and he loves like this, because God the father, loves like this.
Speaker:They are of one mind and one love.
Speaker:Father, son and spirit.
Speaker:The one God are united in the same love.
Speaker:And the father looks at his son, and he's so
Speaker:happy with what he sees.
Speaker:Jesus says in verse 17, this is why the father
Speaker:loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again.
Speaker:No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own.
Speaker:I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to take it up again.
Speaker:I have received this command from my father.
Speaker:Jesus isnt pulling this idea of a good
Speaker:shepherd out of thin air.
Speaker:Hes picking up on Old Testament language in
Speaker:Ezekiel 34.
Speaker:God gets so angry at the kings whove led his
Speaker:people.
Speaker:They havent led in love.
Speaker:Theyve let in selfishness and pride, not serving the people, but using the people.
Speaker:And when gods looked at them, hes not pleased.
Speaker:Let me read a longer passage.
Speaker:This is Ezekiel, chapter four, from verse two.
Speaker:God says to Ezekiel, son of man, prophesy
Speaker:against the shepherds of Israel.
Speaker:Prophesy and say to them, this is what the
Speaker:Lord God says to the shepherds.
Speaker:Woe to the shepherds of Israel who have been
Speaker:feeding themselves.
Speaker:Shouldn't the shepherds feed their flock?
Speaker:You eat the fat, wear the wool and butcher the fattened animals.
Speaker:But you do not tend the flock.
Speaker:You have not strengthened the weak, healed the
Speaker:sick, bandaged the injured, brought back the strays, or sought the lost.
Speaker:Instead, you've ruled them with violence and cruelty.
Speaker:They've scattered for lack of a shepherd.
Speaker:They became food for all the wild animals.
Speaker:When they were scattered, my flock went astray on all the mountains and every high hill.
Speaker:My flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth, and there was no one searching or
Speaker:seeking for them.
Speaker:Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the
Speaker:Lord as I live.
Speaker:This is the declaration of the Lord God.
Speaker:Because my flock, lacking a shepherd, has become prey and food for every wild animal,
Speaker:and because my shepherds do not search for my flock, and because the shepherds feed
Speaker:themselves rather than my flock, therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord.
Speaker:This is what the Lord God says.
Speaker:Look, I am against the shepherds.
Speaker:I will demand my flock from them and prevent them from shepherding the flock.
Speaker:The shepherds will no longer feed themselves, for I will rescue my flock from their mouths
Speaker:so that they will not be food for them.
Speaker:God's love for his people is seen in his anger
Speaker:at those who have abused his people.
Speaker:It's also seen in what he does next.
Speaker:He gives his people the best shepherd of all, himself.
Speaker:Listen to his love and care.
Speaker:This is Ezekiel 30 411, we're told, for this
Speaker:is what the Lord God says.
Speaker:See, I myself will search for my flock and
Speaker:look for them as a shepherd looks for his sheep on the day he is among his scattered
Speaker:flock.
Speaker:So I will look for my flock.
Speaker:I will rescue them from all the places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds
Speaker:and total darkness.
Speaker:I will bring them out from the peoples, gather
Speaker:them from the countries, and bring them to their own soil.
Speaker:I will shepherd them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the
Speaker:inhabited places of the land.
Speaker:I will tend them in good pasture, and their
Speaker:grazing place will be on Israel's lofty mountains.
Speaker:There they will lie down in a good grazing place.
Speaker:They will feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.
Speaker:I will tend my flock and let them lie down.
Speaker:This is the declaration of the Lord God.
Speaker:I will seek the lost, bring back the strays, bandage the injured, and strengthen the weak.
Speaker:But I will destroy the fat and the strong.
Speaker:I will shepherd them with justice.
Speaker:God is the best shepherd.
Speaker:And now God's come.
Speaker:God the Son, Jesus the good shepherd, he's come to lay down his life for his sheep, to
Speaker:give them life people are still divided about Jesus.
Speaker:It's the same division we've seen all along.
Speaker:Those who are willing to honestly look at the
Speaker:facts and those who just want to stay blind to the facts.
Speaker:John tells us in verse 19, again, the Jews were divided because of these words.
Speaker:Many of them were saying, he has a demon and he's crazy.
Speaker:Why do you listen to him? Others were saying, these aren't the words of
Speaker:someone who's demon possessed.
Speaker:Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?
Speaker:The debate still isn't resolved by the time of another festival, the festival of dedication.
Speaker:This happens around December.
Speaker:Jesus is walking along in the temple and he
Speaker:gets mobbed by the Jews, asking in verse 24, how long are you going to keep us in suspense?
Speaker:If you are the messiah, tell us plainly.
Speaker:You might be forgiven for thinking, come on,
Speaker:guys, wake up and smell the coffee.
Speaker:What more does he have to do to prove himself?
Speaker:Jesus replies, I did tell you and you don't believe.
Speaker:It's not that he said it explicitly, I am the messiah.
Speaker:But he's made it obvious, especially through the things he's done, which is what he says in
Speaker:verse 25.
Speaker:He says, the works that I do in my father's
Speaker:name testify about me.
Speaker:So why don't they believe if it's that
Speaker:obvious, if it's so clear? There are all sorts of ways you can answer
Speaker:that.
Speaker:But the one Jesus chooses here is that they
Speaker:don't believe because they don't belong to Jesus.
Speaker:They're not his sheep.
Speaker:They're not a part of his flock.
Speaker:The father has already decided who the people are, who Jesus is going to save, whose eyes
Speaker:he'll give sight to, who he'll rescue from slavery to sin.
Speaker:He's given these people to Jesus, but he hasn't given everyone.
Speaker:Jesus says to these people, you don't believe because you are not of my sheep.
Speaker:People like to have the idea that we're in control.
Speaker:We're in charge of our own decisions.
Speaker:But sin enslaves us.
Speaker:We can't just look at the obvious evidence about Jesus and come to a logical conclusion.
Speaker:Without Jesus, we're blind, we're lost, we're dead.
Speaker:We need God to decide to give us sight.
Speaker:We need God to find us and give us life.
Speaker:If we believe, the only reason we believe is because he has drawn us to himself.
Speaker:And if he does that, then you will never, ever be snatched away from him.
Speaker:Not because you're great and strong, but because he is.
Speaker:Jesus says in verse 27, my sheep hear my voice.
Speaker:I know them.
Speaker:And they follow me.
Speaker:I give them eternal life, and they will never perish.
Speaker:No one will snatch them out of my hand.
Speaker:My father who has given them to me is greater
Speaker:than all.
Speaker:No one is able to snatch them out of my
Speaker:father's hand.
Speaker:I and the father are one.
Speaker:If you're with Jesus, you're safe with him.
Speaker:He gives you life, and that life can never be
Speaker:taken away.
Speaker:His hand is strong.
Speaker:His father's hand is strong.
Speaker:It's a vice like grip lifting you out of death
Speaker:and destruction.
Speaker:Yet again, the Jews can't stand to hear what
Speaker:Jesus is saying, and they pick up stones to kill him.
Speaker:He says in verse 32, I have shown you many good works from the father.
Speaker:For which of these works are you stoning me? We aren't stoning you for a good work, the
Speaker:Jews answered, but for blasphemy, because you being a man, make yourself God.
Speaker:Further on, Jesus sums up the issue really simply.
Speaker:He says in verse 37, if I am not doing my fathers works, dont believe me.
Speaker:But if I am doing them and you dont believe me, believe the works.
Speaker:This way you will know and understand that the father is in me and I in the father.
Speaker:But they dont want to hear.
Speaker:Again they try to seize him, and again he
Speaker:slips away.
Speaker:He heads back over the Jordan river to where
Speaker:Jon had been baptizing at first.
Speaker:So he's away from Jerusalem, and you might be
Speaker:thinking by this point that no one seems to want to listen, and lots of people don't.
Speaker:But the father has given sheep to Jesus.
Speaker:There are people who will be saved.
Speaker:In fact, nothing will stop them from being saved.
Speaker:God's love and power is too strong.
Speaker:And so John tells us about how there are lots
Speaker:of people who can see the truth, whose eyes have been opened to reality, who have been
Speaker:saved from blindness.
Speaker:In verse 41, John says, many came to him and
Speaker:said, John never did a sign.
Speaker:But everything John said about this man was
Speaker:true, and many believed in him.
Speaker:There.
Speaker:I asked at the beginning if that's worth it.
Speaker:Is it worth believing in Jesus?
Speaker:What if it means losing things, losing friendships, losing respectability, losing job
Speaker:opportunities or career advancement, losing money or comfort or security?
Speaker:Would it be worth it? If people hate Jesus as much as we've seen in
Speaker:this passage, they're going to hate you for following him.
Speaker:And I've known people who, when faced with the choice, say, no, Jesus isn't worth it.
Speaker:He isn't worth losing that family relationship.
Speaker:He isn't worth losing that lifestyle.
Speaker:He isn't worth the cost but, friends, listen
Speaker:to the man who is blind, but who now sees the man who could see better than all the people
Speaker:who were supposed to be the leaders, but who were blind guides.
Speaker:He looked at Jesus and said, of course he's worth it.
Speaker:Of course he's worth it.
Speaker:No one else can do what he can do.
Speaker:No one else can give you what he can give you.
Speaker:It's like when Peter said, where else can we
Speaker:go? You alone, Jesus, have the words of eternal
Speaker:life.
Speaker:When you look with wonder at his power and
Speaker:love and goodness, then of course it's worth losing everything else to have him as your
Speaker:shepherd, to have him as your guide and protector.
Speaker:There's no shepherd like him.
Speaker:He really is the good shepherd who leads us to
Speaker:green grass and cool waters, who gives his own life to save ours, who protects us and keeps
Speaker:us safe from evil.
Speaker:No one can snatch us out of his hands.
Speaker:It doesn't mean that this life will be easy.
Speaker:It won't.
Speaker:Following Jesus is hard.
Speaker:This world is hard.
Speaker:But the good shepherd will lead us safely through the dark valley and take us safely
Speaker:home.
Speaker:That's why the apostle Paul, who faced
Speaker:suffering and persecution and cold and pain and shipwreck and death, all for Jesus, could
Speaker:say these marvellous words.
Speaker:He says in romans 835.
Speaker:Who can separate us from the love of christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or
Speaker:famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written, because of you we are being
Speaker:put to death.
Speaker:All day long we are counted as sheep to be
Speaker:slaughtered.
Speaker:No, in all these things we are more than
Speaker:conquerors through him who loved us.
Speaker:For I am persuaded that neither death, nor
Speaker:life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor
Speaker:height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of
Speaker:God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Speaker:Jesus is about to show the power of that love
Speaker:to his disciples.
Speaker:He's about to do his most spectacular miracle
Speaker:yet.
Speaker:But that's a story for next time.
Speaker:Bye for now.
